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If I had remembered to post my MLB 2014 predictions, I can assure you they included the KC Royals winning the central division… I didn’t see them making it all the way to the series but I did see them in the post season. The Royals have had a ton of prospects for years and it was finally time for it to pay some dividends.

The Royals long, slow progress toward competitive baseball brings me to 2015… the few friends and co-workers I talked up the Royals to last year laughed at them making the post season after years of slow rebuild. Yet many of those same (and quite a few “experts”) are all hopped up on the Cubbies in 2015. It’s too much too soon… yes, the Cubs have a ton of prospects and a few blue chip established pros too. But Kris Bryant can look like Babe Ruth in the preseason all he wants, but ala the Royals it’s going to take a few years for them to make it all the way back to competitive.

Now, having gotten patting my own back and throwing cold water on the Cubs out of the way, here’s what’s going to happen in 2015:

AL East
Seems like only yesterday the Sux or Yankees were odds on favorites to win the AL every year. This division should be very competitive once again but I highly doubt the Yankees will be part of that competition – too old and too little pitching.

Orioles – they quietly won 96 games last year and had an ever quieter off season. But they should have healthy Machado and Wieters and (while he’ll never hit 50 HR again) Chris Davis almost HAS to be better than last year.

Blue Jays – if their bats stay healthy and their young pitchers step up, they are a serious contender for the AL pennant.

Red Sux – questionable pitching and (on a smaller scale) similar to the Cubs too much prospect hype for guys like Rusney and Betts. I wouldn’t be shocked if they won the division but it would likely be because they have the resources to acquire a bunch of guys down the strech.

Yankees – hard to believe but I’d say it’s 50/50 the Mets win more games than them… and I wouldn’t be shocked to see them in last place.

Rays – decent young pitching but not much else

AL Central
I picked the Royals as wild card last year and they delivered despite what was a down year for many of theirs guys. This year Hosmer and others rebound and they win the division outright as aging Tigers break down a bit.

Royals – the most surprising thing about the Royals last year for me was their disappointing bats. Hosmer, Moustakas and others disappointed and they still ended up in the series.

Indians – good young team that will finally get over the hump and make the playoffs. Wouldn’t be surprised to see them win division.

Tigers – clearly they still have a ton of talent and arguably the favorite in the central but I think their collective age is going to catch up to them this year.

Twin – where have you gone Kirby Puckett? Help is on the way but going to take several years of prospect development

AL West
Mariners offense should be better and they could challenge but Halos still seem a notch or two above the field here.

Angels – hard to see anyone else winning the division but how serious of a series contender they are will depend on pitching

Mariners – They could surprise me but Nelson Cruz was due for a big regression even before moving to Safeco

Astros – They added a bunch of bats to a good young core and could be a dark horse wild card contender in my book

A’s – I like some of the moves on offense but very skeptical on Kazmir and Pomeranz being key cogs in the rotation…. magic finally wears off this year I think

Rangers – they’re the AL west version of the yankees… lots of big names but too old and seriously lacking in the starting pitcher department

NL East
If the Nats don’t win this division by double digits, I’ll be surprised… heck, they might win it by 20.

Nationals – something tells me the Nats are going to be your classic 105 win, dominant regular season team that proceeds to flop in the playoffs.

Mets – they’ve been pathetic so long I think they are overdue to surprise a bit… and by that I mean they win 83 games

Marlins – it’s them or the Mets competing for the right to finish a distant 2nd place

Braves – they seem like they’ve been good for a long time but this year’s edition looks pretty bad… much worse than the team that won only 77 last year

Phillies – it’s going to get worse before it gets better for the Phils

NL Central
This might be the best division in baseball. All of the teams have playoff potential in my book. But the Cards have the best pitching and are most well balanced.

Cardinals – they added some nice pieces to an already solid squad and the young pitchers will take another step forward

Pirates – not enough pitching to be a true series contender but another wild card berth is doable

Reds – several key guys (Votto, Bruce, etc) had very down years but don’t write them off… those guys will bounce back and they have good young pitching

Cubs – I see a bit of playoff hype for them but to me eclipsing .500 would be a good goal for a very young team

Brewers – Other than the beer and brats, not much to get excited about in Milwaukee

NL West
After a charmed run to the championship last year, Giants slip. Dodgers added some pieces are clearly the class here.

Dodgers – the window is closing for this team to win a series… not sure about winning but I could definitely see them at least making it there this year

Padres – nice off season moves and a more hitter friendly park configuration could make this team a wild card contender.

Giants – I think they’ll drop off significantly after last year’s magical run but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them sneak into 2nd and a wild card again

D’backs – better than last year but that’s not saying much

Rockies – not better than last year and that’s not good

Playoffs

AL Wild Card: Indians beat Blue Jays

NL Wild Card: Pirates beat Padres

AL Divisional: Orioles beat Indians, Angels beat Royals

NL Divisional: Nationals beat Pirates, Cardinals beat Dodgers

AL Championship: Orioles beat Angels

NL Championship: Cardinals beat Nationals

World Series
Underrated pitching staff and solid bounce back seasons from guys like Machado and Wieters power the O’s to the AL pennant for first time since 1983. The vanilla Cards are back again… they may not be super exciting but all they do is win. Red Birds win in 6 games.

Well, my 2013 prediction were close… I just picked the wrong NFC West titan to beat the Broncos. I even correctly predicted camera-less Brady would once again not looking anything like Joe Montana in losing to Denver in the AFC Championship.

Frankly this year I’m not feeling so confident… I really want to predict a rematch between Seattle and Denver; neither lost anyone too dramatic and Denver signed a bunch of big names. But it’s tough to repeat and both the Seahawks D and Denver O seem primed for some regression.

NFCEast – PHI (9-7), WAS (8-8), NYG (7-9), DAL (6-10)…. Eagles will once again be the best of four flawed teams.North – GNB (11-5), CHI (10-6), DET (7-9), MIN (6-10)… Packers and Bears best the one dimensional Lions and Vikes.South – NO (13-3), CAR (9-7), TB (8-8), ATL (7-9)… Saints will benefit from a somewhat soft division and even softer schedule.West – SEA (12-4), SF (10-6), ARI (8-8), STL (6-10)… Still the toughest division in football by far; I was this close to predicting the 49ers to falter and miss playoffs but they just have too much talent. Rams way better than 6-10 but not in this brutal division.

AFCEast – NWE (11-5), NYJ (8-8), MIA (7-9), BUF (5-11)… sigh, Pats cruise to another title; only real question is whether this is final year in Buffalo for Bills. Jets secondary a mess but the offense has to be better after looking like a D3 team last year so they will sneak into the playoffs to keep Rex around for at least 1 more year.North – CIN (10-6), BAL (9-7), PIT (7-9), CLE (4-12)… Dalton taking a lot of flak for playoff losses but he’s still young and improved each of his 3 seasons. Ravens are a sleeper if o-line figured out…. Steelers are old and Browns losing Gordon really hurt whoever ends up playing QB.South – IND (11-5), HOU (7-9), TEN (6-10), JAC (3-13)… Colts should go 6-0 in division play and improvement from Luck could make them the #1 seed in AFC. Texans bounce back a bit but still a weak field here.West – DEN (12-4), KC (8-8), SD (7-9), OAK (4-12)… Denver still loaded but both they and KC will come back down to earth a bit after 2013 peaks. Raiders suffer through another miserable season… and possibly last season moving back to LA again.

Super Bowl
Remember how bad the Seahawks made Peyton look last year? Welp, this year Tomwina is on the receiving end of “baby seal clubbing”. Seahawks repeat as defense is not quite as dominant but Russell Wilson grows into a top 5 or so NFL QB.

Ok, so I’m about 2 weeks late with these predictions but since no one is reading this blog I think we’re fine here.

Let’s also not talk about last year where my MLB predictions were not so hot – neither of my world series teams even made the playoffs :-/

So on to 2013!

AL East

Yankees – this division is by far the toughest to call but rumors of Bombers demise are premature.. plenty of talent and still deep pockets at the deadline

Rays – they’ll continue to be just good enough to make the playoffs and not do anything in them

Red Sux – same story as the Yankees… as much as I’d love to see it happen, last year’s disaster will not repeat

Blue Jays – they will be to 2013 what the Marlins were in 2012… a high priced all star team that will flop

Orioles – the O’s luck from 2012 runs out and they go back in the basement

AL Central

Tigers – getting back VMart is like a big free agent signing… class of the AL thanks to the pitching

White Sox – none of the other 4 teams in this division impress me much but I’ll give slight edge to Chisox based on pitching

Indians – I see the Tribe making a surprise wild card run but fading down the stretch

Royals – Shields is nice but still not getting over the .500 hump

Twins – going to be a loooong year for Minny

AL West

Angels – Hamilton adds to an already loaded lineup but the real question is how good is their pitching

Athletics – 2012 Cinderella is for real and wild get a wild card this year

Rangers – they are headed into mini rebuild mode with a bunch of aging vets being phased out for youngsters… I wouldn’t be surprised to see them sub .500 this year but contending again in a season or two

Mariners – I like most of the little moves they made in the offseason as Morse and Morales should add some nice pop. Tempted to pick them to finish ahead of Texas but that might be a reach

Astros – new league, same triple A level talent

NL East

Nationals – tempted to pick the Braves here but I’ll go with the masses and say Nats win in a close race

Braves – I love getting Justin Upton… they’ll give Nats all they can handle in tougher than expected NL East

Mets – this is more of a reflection of how bad I think the Phillies and Marlins are going to be than a vote of confidence in the Mets

Phillies – don’t like their chances of a rebound much at all… beating the Mets out for 3rd (which isn’t saying much) is a possibility but so is giving the fish a run for last place

Marlins – Miami will see how AAA ball draws in that brand new tax payer funded stadium

NL Central

Reds – tons of offense but can they pitch?

Cardinals – I was very close to picking them to win the division so they are a few key Reds’ injuries away from 1st

Pirates – unless they find some starting pitching, they’ll once again come up just short of finishing above .500 for the first time in forever

Brewers – similar to Pirates, a solid offense with some big bats but not much starting rotation depth

Cubs – may get worse before they get better

NL West

Dodgers – health is the biggest concern for the Dodgers… they could have the best record in the NL or miss the playoffs depending on how their DL ends up looking

Giants – if you’re a baseball fan, you have to like how this team is put together and I can easily see them beating out the Dodgers

Rockies – best of the rest in the very top heavy NL West

Diamond Backs – congrats to the D’Backs for finally ridding themselves of one of the best young players in baseball!

Padres – the fences at PETCO have moved in so all the San Diego losses are higher scoring

Playoffs
Wild Card: Giants over Braves and Athletics over Rays
Divisional Round: Tigers over Athletics, Angels over Yankees, Nationals over Giants and Dodgers over Reds as both NL series go 7
Championship Round: Tigers over Angels in 6, Nationals over Dodgers in 5World Series: Tiger over Nationals in 6

Super Bowl
Fitting that defending champion Packers will play the Belicheats (the last team to win back to back titles AND first team to cheat their way to back to back titles). A Green Bay team that’s even better than last year’s brings home Vince’s trophy again, everyone realizes Aaron Rodgers is a WAY better QB than Tom Brady…. Green Bay 37, New England 21

Bonus Super Bowl prediction – Belicheat actually sticks around for the handshake this time but Tomwina sits on the sidelines crying like the little girl that he is.

As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill goes on and on and on and all BO does is talk like a street thug about “finding an ass to kick”, I can’t help but laugh about how different this story would be getting covered if good ‘ol Dubya was still in office.

… stay classy BO, stay classy…

To be clear, I’m not saying the response would be any different under another administration (they’re all corrupted by the same corporate goons).

But no matter which side of the political fence you’re on, you’re either oblivious or lying if you don’t think the press would be absolutely CRUCIFYING Bush for this.

In fact this would have been a liberal media’s dream come true if it had happened 6 or 8 years ago when they could exploit it to stop Bush from getting re-elected…“species being wiped out daily and bush does nothing but embarrass America abroad by threatening to ‘kick ass'”, “bush and his oil baron cronies ruining the environment so they can make millions”, “gulf coast small businesses ruined by evil corporate greed”, etc etc etc. It would literally be a nonstop, 24×7, bush is in bed with big oil feeding frenzy.

But since a dem do nothing is in office instead of one from the GOP, it’s all just BP’s fault and they’ll just use this to try and ramrod in some cap and trade nonsense that will further ensure my kids grow up in a 3rd world country.

And no one is even mentioning that the federal agency responsible for inspecting the rig for safety FAILED to perform required monthly inspections 33% of the time since Obama has taken office. Or that it cited the Deepwater Horizon as a model of safety just a few months before the disaster (despite not actually bothering to inspect it most of the time or noticing a slew of safety documents were never filed on the rig).

I think back to Katrina… that was somehow all the Bush administration’s fault. New Orleans, a city built where a city never should have been built gets hit dead on by a once in a century storm…. but the media acted like there was some magic wand to make the flood waters recede that Bush was too incompetent to use.

Sigh… the sooner people realize how utterly corrupt BOTH SIDES and, more importantly, the mainstream media are, the sooner we can start rebuilding a government that actually works. I just hope it’s not too late already.

“We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”

Here’s BO’s today on his precious health care reform… his White House chief spokesman explained all the recent kick backs (aka bribes) given to Senators (such as Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Chris Dodd, Bernie Sanders, and many others) on the fence about health care as follows:

“Every senator uses whatever leverage they have to help their states. That’s the way it has been. That’s the way it will always be.”

I don’t know what’s sadder – that so many people were gullible enough to believe this guy in the beginning or that some of them still do. “Yes, we can all have cheap health care, high standards of living, affordable half million dollar homes, big screen TVs, cheap transportation and green energy AND save money too!”. There’s some saying, can’t quite remember, about when something sounds too good to be true….? Ah whatever, pass me my bailout money and free health care!

I feel bad for my kids… they’re the generation that’s probably going to have the painfully realize the federal government (the same one that under the guise of the USPS lost 3.8 BILLION dollars last year alone putting envelopes in mailboxes) cannot spend a TRILLION on health care and somehow have it end up saving us money. They’re the ones that are going to end up living in a province of China when the people financing all of our drunken sailor style spending call in their debts.

You’ve reached the blog of Sean Comerford. Sean currently resides in central Connecticut where he works as a software architect at ESPN.

When he’s not working, taking care of his kids, managing his fantasy teams or drinking, Sean occasionally will post some nonsense here. And while he only updates this blog on a semi-annual basis, everything he has to say is very important so take heed and it to your RSS chump.